Down
by DrQuint
Summary: Silver and Gold having the usual fanon interaction.  Not that one. This is rated K. Read if you like people being down on their luck.
1. Chapter 1

'Okay, so this is how it happened...'

'This is Mount Twistspike, a desolate place with no one to find in miles other than wild pokemon so powerful only people who are Elite 4 certified and got special permission from a Pokemon Professor are allowed anywhere near it. So of course, I've battled maybe 12 trainers on the way here, found a pokecenter set up just at the base of the mountain, there was an house with this nice gentleman reminiscing about his days on the beach eating ice-cream who gave me a TM for "refresh", I caught 2 full teams of pokemon stronger than Lance's and the only way to climb the mountain is to actually go through a mazelike cave that requires a suspicious amount of HM moves to cross. And I hadn't seen a single soul in the place until I happened to find none oth-'

"Do you do that often?"

'Uh?'

"That monologue thing. It's creeping me out."

'Oh, uhh... Just saving my game.'

Silver did not give him any look. Giving looks is a way of saying something without verbalizing it, be it "Uh-uh..." or "Ahah, this crazy guy? I just met him and I'm not even walking with him". He was trying to give him one of those "We're not in a video game!" looks but something in the back of his mind was reassuring him that saving was perfectly normal and that neither Gold or himself were crazy. Specially himself. Sanity and basic body motions is a complicated thing to work around with when the universe is conspiring against you. He shook his head, forcing his brain to quickly realign the complex chemistry that it calls "thinking".

"Okay, but, are you going to be done with it?"

'I just did. I want to keep track of my adventures, but I don't need to tire myself reading 12 pages every time I set off to move'

"If you say so, birdbrain" - This was ticking off Silver now, so he took the cue that he just gave himself "So, uh, your canary, how is it supposed to get us help again?"

'Well, I'm not sure, but I we didn't have a better idea. Besides, Noctowl is resourceful. This one time, I needed to carry a truck out of a pier but none of my pokemon could handle it, so I gave it Alakazam's ball to take to the pokecenter to get it replac-'

"Gold..."

'-ed by Lug- uh? what is it?'

"Just... Shut up."

Gold was slightly bothered. Not at Silver. Just bothered in general. It's just that he solved many problems using Lugia before, but he never managed to have anyone acknowledge the fact Lugia chose him as its temporary master. He even walked Lugia loose around Ecruteak city, where he had got the hints about finding it, and none reacted to the colossal storm causing monster. He thought Silver would be different, but ever since he caught Lugia, he hasn't managed to cross his path or find himself a good reason to mention it.

Still, considering where they found each other, maybe... The silence was bothering him anyways, might as well try and ask.

'Silver?'

"eh...?"

'What are you doing here anyways?'

"Stuck in some hole in the worst designed dungeon ever with someone I can barely tolerate. And you?"

'Hmmff... Well I've come here to find a legendary pokemon.'

Silver's eyes widened. Gold noticed, but he got the reason why he did a bit off the mark.

'You heard it too? The legendary Suicune is wandering around this mountains! I have seen it a few times before and I thought that maybe this is the chance I'll finally manage to catch it!'

"G-Gold?"

'uh, yes?'

"How did you know that Suicune was here of all places?"

'Oh. An old man told me when I was having a vacation in Hoenn. There's an old myth about this place. It was literally all he spoke about, all the time! This mountain is where the awakened Suicune waits for a worthy trainer to show up, and I came test myself.'

Silver blinked. It was a sarcastic blink. He repeated said blink trying to make an impression. It didn't work.

His life had been rough recently. Silver had set off to prove his independence and superiority over his father before. Despite everything he told him, he respected his old man. He had achieved a lot on his own, and made one of the largest operating groups, criminal or otherwise, that had functioned in two countries. His father could grab a bunch of worthless men off the street and make them useful for a cause. In his travels, he found Team rocket leaderless, he thought nothing of them. He considered them incapable on their own, until he had a talk with their current leader on the Radio Tower. He wasn't his father, but he ordered them to disband, to trail off and get a life. His father left team rocket for being cowards and himself for being weak, and he wanted them all gone.

Back in the radio tower, he was offered a position, which he refused. Or at least he did at first. Silver had to prove his strength, and the Rockets needed a leader. Seeing Silver and not Giovanni, they promised to disband and leave the tower. It was an intended ending to Rocket. But something happened - Gold. To the Rockets, the kid was the perfect excuse to leave when things went wrong, Giovanni had done it before so no one felt a big shame in making him a hero at their expense. But when Silver heard it, he changed his mind. He called his mother from the doors of the Indigo Plateau, with news of his defeat before even crossing the doors. He was decided.

Team Rocket went through some restructuring. Their numbers were very small now, and Silver wasn't exactly experienced in leadership. He had one demand though. He would lead them under the condition they'd make him Champion. His father had been Gym Leader, which gave him public favor. He would be more than that. But he needed strong Pokemon. He needed no less than the strongest he could find. He needed legendary beasts! And one day, he had seen these such Pokemon. Three of them. Looking down, from a crack in the wooden floor, Gold and a girl called Crystal had awakened the three legendary beasts. And Silver saw them. These were the perfect legendaries to catch and defeat both Gold and the Champion Lance with! It was his fated ironic victory!

And thus, he set Rocket operations to track them down. There was much equipment leftover from past operations. His father had chased another such legend, a scientist told him, but it hid somewhere where it couldn't be found. Success here was crucial for Silver. It was another card in quest to surpass his father. For a few months, the beasts would rapidly move around all over the place, impossible to chase down. Intelligence was all over the country bringing reports of mere glimpses or unusual manifestations of the elements. It was hard work, but Team Rocket could handle it. With time, Silver managed to figure out a pattern, and had the hiding place of Suicine. It was the hardest to track, requiring testing of water sources for purity, yet, it was also the one that had the most reports from people sightings. Suicune was the least scared of humans of the trio, and he would use that flaw as an opportunity.

He now knew it hid in this place and he knew it was the one he had the most chance of capture upon a direct encounter. He was ready for it. He practiced for a month. He had a plan. It was his moment, the start of his glory.

Yet...

His nemesis had achieved the same as he did in months...by talking to a senile old man.

At this same moment, in another universe, a 9 year old child has very easily learnt the importance of speaking to NPC's from a impossibly easy RPG about 4 heroes of light. A crucial skill, damned be those who failed to grasp it.

Silver was disgusted. He almost called him a spy, but thought against to referring his connections. The sheer, diluted naiveté and luck of this guy was pouring into him, converted into hatred of equal purity. He was managing to contain himself until 'So, do you think we can look for it together?'. Even if Silver has toned down his aggressiveness a whole lot recently, reacting thus is still an acceptable outcome for him: Silver stood up, his glare now in its usual piercing state, body posed ready, and a pokeball in hand. He wasn't going to tolerate this hole without some satisfaction.

'Silver?'

"Shut up! You! ME! BATTLE! NOW!"

Okay, what happened next was a reflex that Silver had tried to fix since forever. What you were missing in the picture so far was something called lighting. Here's what it was like: Two blood red flashlights. Caves can be really dark, especially when you go to lower floors, such as, when you fall through holes. Pokemon trainers found solutions regarding this problem by ignoring the ultra futuristic technology and by instead crippling the battle capabilities of some of their pokemon, or worse, the size of their to-go teams. Another curious fact about (most) trainers is that they often seem to have a hurrying urge to not wander around with more than two pokemon outside of their balls, regardless of the benefits of this. Silver many times tried to avoid falling for the urge, with relative success, but today, he's not in his full mental faculties, so this is what he said:

"Venonat, come back! Slice him to shreds, Skarmory!"

They weren't competing for the intellectual challenge of being first in identifying a terrible idea when you see (hear) one, but still, Silver would probably not be happy to know that Gold only figured this was one shortly after himself, when Silver screamed in pain.

A few moment later, Gold is tending to Silver's bleeding leg.

'You know, I just realized I never saw you wearing a backpack.'

"hmpff... And what of it?"

'Well, as a trainer, I'd expect you'd be more ready for situations like this.' - He says this as he's finishing wasting a silk scarf as a bandage. This isn't an act of hypocrisy on Gold's part, (human)medical care doesn't seem to exist anywhere convenient, so trainers do with what's available. There were quite a few extra of those scarves in his backpack. - 'In fact, I must wonder where you manage keep all the stuff you carry around'

Silver didn't bother with an answer. But if there was an honest one, it'd be "I steal what I need", or more specifically, "I used to steal what I needed, now I get others to do it for me".

And so they sat there for a while in silence. Gold tried to silently show the advantages of a backpack by bringing out two lemonades. Silver, disgruntled, took it, but he didn't want to have to. Unconsciously, he knew that healing some HP after a blood loss is only logical.

His mind was elsewhere. Ariana will certainly send grunts to come pick him if he doesn't figure out a way to get out, and with a hurt leg, his choices are awfully reduced. He wanted to get himself out of this situation for two reasons. Finding Suicune without Gold nearby certainly has a priority, but being seen in a friendly situation with him maintains a high priority regardless. He doesn't want Gold to know he's with the Rockets.

Silver hit his fist on the lemonade can against the ground. Making a loud noise.

'Uh, something wrong?'

"It's nothing.'"

'You should calm down. We'll be out of here in no time, and then we can find Suicune. I have hopes I can catch it but if it choose to go with you, it's okay as well.'

He clenched his teeth hard. So hard it would have hurt him were he not distracted. Why's he being so friendly? Why does he seem to trust him? Maybe he has changed his ways a little bit, he admitted, he no longer releases pokemon who are "useless" and has kept a few ones for company. But it's still because he wants to be stronger than him, and because it just wasn't working out for him before. It pained him realizing he actually learned something from Gold, and he wanted out of there the soonest. But what was enraging him so much was that bothersome thought. He didn't want Gold to see him with the Rockets and not the other way around. He thought of Gold's reaction to seeing him working with the "bad guys" first, over the Rocket's reaction to see him rely on Gold.

"Well, do you have any more brilliant ideas so far then? Your bird isn't coming back and I doubt even if he did that it's going to do anything useful. Seriously, what could POSSIBLY a pokemon that small do to save us? Tell people to follow it to the deadly cave of doom? Learn fly and carry two persons thrice its size?"

Should Silver have been quicker in jinxing the situation, the faster the generic Nurse would have done the "Timmy falling down the well" joke with Noctowl , just so that it'd appear right on cue. This joke tends to fail in this situation because no one ever realizes that there might indeed be a boy who's stuck deep in a huge hole. Silver and Gold both stood up and looked upwards at the source of the screech (not the move). Noctowl had a Escape Rope in its beak, and Silver had a mental mallet with "Irony" written in it hitting his head.

'You were saying?'

"Well, it still goofed up, there's only one escape rope and there's two of us"

'Whoever gave it to him must have thought a trainer was stuck, it's hard to picture him telling that it was two people'

"So now what do we do"

'Don't worry, I'll be right back and throw you one for you'

Silver panicked for a bit and spouted "So you're leaving me here alone?" and immediately regretted saying it.

'I won't leave you behind. Trust me.' Gold smiled at him 'Besides, you are the one that has a light source in here'

Gold held the rope and spun on himself increasingly faster and then flew to the ceiling. Silver merely watched. Venonat questioned itself regarding the alternative ways of using ropes to get out of holes, and would have voiced its concerns to Silver, but it had a major evolutionary disadvantage in communication to begin attempting doing so.

Silver sat back down.

He wasn't angry anymore. Gold was a big source of tension, and he wished he'd never see him again.

Then he looked at the silk scarf and toyed with it.

He started feeling rather lonely.

"Uh... Thanks."

Then crossed his arms, and bid his time.


	2. Chapter 2

"WHY IS HE TAKING SO DAMNED LONG?"

Venonat flinched. Silver long stopped hitting his pokemon, but Pavlov be damned, when silver screams, his pokemon get ready for pain. And for the first time in this day, Silver's luck paid off. His old habit made Venonat point itself towards the wall that has been behind it the whole time.

It was a craggy wall, with noticeable fissures. It was even sandstone in the middle of a bunch of granite. Hard to notice in the red light unless you point directly at it.

Silver stood up for the final time in this hole. It was a way out. Everything about this wall said "Bomb me" or its correspondent gaming mechanic.

"Machamp!" - He grinned, as his pokemon came out, ready for action. This was the moment hope was going to smile on him. Gold was out of the way and he could look for Suicune all on his own. - "Smash!" - Machamp punched the rock, one time and again. Another time. Bluish light started peering in from the cracks. This was it, it was the physical manifestation of his absolute victory. Behind this wall, all this time, his fate, his goal was waiting, and he was about to grasp it!

One final punch and light engulfed him. His eyes strained him from adapting the the sudden lack of red darkness. He summoned Machamp back to his ball and crept out, Venonat following. Slowly, he got a picture of the chamber behind.

It was huge and tubular. It had small waterfalls falling in its walls, dripping into a puddle deep below. This puddle would then run into a river. It was the mountain's underground spring, the place where the Twistspike river was born.

And in it, in the middle of the puddle, which had two elevated layers of water seemingly floating like a wedding cake surrounded by mist, it stood. Shining white, the crystal in its head irradiating visible fresh cold, its mane fluttering on some invisible wind that did not affect the mist around it.

Suicune.

It was majestic. It was mysterious. It gave the feeling of power he seeked.

And it was asleep.

Silver was right all along, this was the predicted nest Suicune had chosen for itself. And now he was going to have the opportunity to descend the spiraling path down to the Spring, and prove his might to the beast. Or at the very least, abuse Mean Look and throw 99 Ultra Balls at it.

As he took the first step, the mist around Suicune stopped. When he took another step, the spring water stopped running. He did not try another step after the next. You can't ignore waterfalls that stop running. Venonat was shivering behind his hurt leg, keeping as close to him as it possibly could.

Suicune was awakening.

Silver swallowed his panic. If anything, this was perfect. The beast was acknowledging his approach. It wouldn't have been more fitting not to have a epic fight of respect, instead waking up a enraged monster, no more noble and worthy of legendary status than a wild, stupid Houndoom.

The surge of adrenaline in his blood he felt was only quenched by the serotonin in his brain. He was looking down at Suicune. He was heading to face it off and maybe successfully dominating it. This moment was the most perfect of his entire lifetime. Right now, he would finally achieve...

A tumor!

Suicune's mane, fluttering to the side, revealed that its previous brilliance was tainted by darkness on its back.

This blot on the eerie brightness, this thing that so much gave him horror... Had the particular shape of a Girl. Silver froze, but not from the cold. The scene, the girl getting off its back, walking over water, and hugging Suicune's neck, stroking is long snout. The intimacy between the two was colder than ambience could ever aspire to be.

This wasn't any girl.

It was THAT girl.

"Crystal... "

She was there too, back then, when Suicune woke up for its centuries-long slumber.

And she was here now. She had come to this place long before him.

She beat him to it.

Silver lost.

To a girl.

Crystal lifted herself over Suicune's back. And then, she rode it as Suicune disappeared in a flash of cold wind of the north. The blue radiance petered out with Suicune's leave, and water started running again. The cave was empty, barring for Silver and Venonat.

Silver stood still.

Venonat re-lit its eyes, filling the room with the contrast of a red hue. It then looked at its trainer.

"..."

Venonat lowered its antennae and made a low buzzing screech.

"This is a premonition, you know?" - Silver was still standing still, not bothering to look at his HM slave - "Gold was there too. That day."

There was a silence. it wasn't awkward, nor sad. It was merely that, a silence. One that penetrated the sound of running water. Silver's epiphany told him many things about his past and his future. Fate crept closer to the screen where all tales are told, it was waiting for the several jokes it played at Silver's expense this day to pay off.

But for the first time in that day, Silver shrugged it off. He literally shrugged. Fate, disappointed, looked away to find a new victim.

"Whatever!" - Silver said.

"?" - said Venonat.

"There's 3 beasts of legend. So what if he might have one? It'll make no difference!"

He raised a fist.

"In the end, I'll take the strongest one! If Suicune would take that girl over me it's because Suicune was a dog with low standards for owners! Better than having a legendary, is having the strongest breed of legendaries! I shall fight his legendary beast with my very own! And I'll show everyone, I will show them that I'm the one who wins!"

And thus, Silver turned back and into the hole.

And there he waited for Gold.


End file.
